The present invention relates to armaments, in particular to means for active protection of military equipment from high-speed destruction means, or in other words to active protection systems.
Active protection systems are known in the art. In particular, there are already known active protective systems which use the effect of reciprocal (in relation to incoming destruction means) explosion. One of such active protective systems is disclosed in the French patent application no. 2676536. It includes at least one system of launching elements made of pipes, which house protective ammunition. The launching elements are arranged so that they create a protection zone in the form of arcs of a circle. The system has a protective ammunition launch control unit and means for detection of outside objects. The detection means include a system of detectors which are located within the controlling area and connected to the central control unit.
This system has the disadvantage in the existence of devices for detection of outside objects placed in the protected zone, which increases the reaction time for protective ammunition. In addition, the location of the devices for detection of outside objects at a range far away from the launching pad makes the use of this invention, for example on tanks, in applicable in practice.
Another active protection system is described in the website http://armor.vif2.ru/tanks.EQP/arna.html. This known system includes a radar mount on the tank turret. A control panel placed in the turret and protective ammunition arranged around the turret. This system can be considered as a prototype, and it possess some disadvantages. In particular the location of the radar on the turret is disadvantageous, since in case of getting hit by, for example small arms or shell-splinters, or mine-splinters, the entire active protection system actually becomes “blind” and will be completely out of operation. Also, the arrangement of protective ammunition around the turret decreases the reliability and protective performance of the entire system, because their concentration at the turret area increases the likelihood of their destruction by splinters, high-caliber machine-gun bullets, etc. The above described disadvantages reduce the reliability of this known active protection system.